Whiskey Drink

Album: Highway Desperado (2023)
Charted: 77
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Whiskey Drink" tells the story of a man in the familiar post-breakup malaise: mopey, moody, and medicinally marinated in Tennessee whiskey. But rather than simply sobbing into his glass, he does what any rational adult might: he starts talking to it.

    Not metaphorically, mind you. Literally. The whiskey becomes a conversational partner - a sort of malted therapist in a bottle. "Tell me, Jack," Jason Aldean sings, addressing Jack Daniel's as though it were a sympathetic drinking buddy.
  • Two of Aldean's band members, Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy, wrote the song with John Dee Edwards and John Morgan. The same four penned another of Aldean's heartbreak-with-a-drink-in-hand songs, "That's What Tequila Does."
  • "Whiskey Drink" appears on Aldean's 11th album, Highway Desperado. The album contains other odes to barstool melancholy, including "I Knew You'd Come Around" and "From This Beer On." Clearly this was a thematic focus Aldean wanted to explore throughout the project.
  • Aldean's regular producer Michael Knox helmed the track. The musicians are:

    Rich Redmond: drums
    Tully Kennedy: bass, programming
    Kurt Allison: electric guitar, keyboards, programming
    Adam Shoenfeld: electric guitar
    Danny Rader: acoustic guitar
    Mike Johnson: pedal steel
    Tony Harrell: Hammond B3
    Perry Coleman: background vocals
    Blake Bollinger: programming
  • Here are four other songs where whiskey becomes a kind of dialogue partner, confessor, or sparring buddy:

    1973 "Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson
    While it's not a dialogue in the strictest sense, the way Willie addresses whiskey river gives it a mythic, almost sentient quality. It's something he appeals to, pleads with, and surrenders to, as if it's alive:

    Whiskey river, take my mind
    Don't let her memory torture me


    2003 "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss
    While not a direct conversation, the song personifies whiskey as a silent partner in sorrow and eventual death.

    He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger

    2014 "Whiskey And You" by Chris Stapleton (originally by Tim McGraw)

    This one's structured more as a comparison than a full conversation, but the tone suggests the whiskey has become the confidant.

    There's a difference between whiskey and you

    2023 "Hey Whiskey" by Tim McGraw

    In this song McGraw sings from the perspective of someone talking to whiskey like it's a person who has stolen his lover away. He treats the bottle as both a rival and a temptress.

    Hey whiskey, what'd you do with her?
    You took the fire and turned it into ashes

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"

Mike Scott of The Waterboys - "Fisherman's Blues"They're Playing My Song

Armed with a childhood spent devouring books, Mike Scott's heart was stolen by the punk rock scene of 1977. Not surprisingly, he would go on to become the most literate of rockers.

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

Don Felder

Don FelderSongwriter Interviews

Don breaks down "Hotel California" and other songs he wrote as a member of the Eagles. Now we know where the "warm smell of colitas" came from.

Jon Anderson

Jon AndersonSongwriter Interviews

Jon Anderson breaks down the Yes classic "Seen All Good People" and talks about his 1000 Hands album, which features Chick Corea, Rick Derringer, Ian Anderson, and many other luminaries.

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."